emilychen
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The Natural Approach
1) Is it really good for L2 learners to delay their oral production?
2) Does the natural approach attend to learners' output? Can comprehensible input alone lead to learners' comprehensible output?
Note: Groups 1 and 5 are required to answer these two questions.
Last edited by emilychen, 10/25/2004, 12:34 pm
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10/25/2004, 12:27 pm
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Vita
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 Group 1
Group Members:
Lanni,Matilde,Selena,Jessie Chung,Vita
Question1:
Is it really good for L2 learners to delay their oral production?
Answer:
It is acceptable for L2 learners to delay their oral production, particularly L2 beginners. For most L2 learners, oral production is generally delayed compared to other language skills. Speaking is output production. Learners need to have a certain numbers of comprehensible input then they may have ability to turn them into an oral production. If L2 learners can’t get comprehensible input from teachers, how can they know what the teachers say? How can learners know what should they say?
Another reason is that when students don’t speak, that doesn’t mean the learners can’t understand teachers's words. Maybe they need "silent period" to stimulate their thinking (including words choosing and sentences combination). However, this concept is not appropriate for L2 learners who are not beginners. We all know that the major function for a language is to communicate. Thus, the oral production may not be supposed to delay while learning L2. After all, oral production is the obvious acquisition for L2 learning. As a result, oral production delay is not exactly “really good” for L2 learners but it is acceptable for L2 learners especially beginners.
Question2:
Does the natural approach attend to learners' output? Can comprehensible input alone lead to learners' comprehensible output?
Answers:
Yes, we deem that the natural approach definitely attends to learner’s output and the comprehensible input will lead to learner’s comprehensible output as well. The reasons are as follows.
In accordance with Krashen and Terrell’s theories of the Natural Approach which suggests that in an optimum affective state, learners who expose to comprehensive input will acquire a language more effectively than others.
Moreover, as we have learned from the Krashen's Monitor Model which have taken Input hypothesis and Affective filter hypothesis into account, we believe that both eliminating the learners’ anxious feeling and pressure and promoting their confidence and motivation can help learners habituate into the language learning environment and concentrate on the target language itself. Therefore, learners can establish a monitor box to acquire the information effectively and transfer this language skill naturally.
In addition, we also value the comprehensible input positively because it lets the learners exposure themselves to the natural language environment and guides the learners to understand the meaning of the content. After understanding the messages, the learners will be more willing to focus on the language content and sentence structure and then he/she might be able to acquire the linguistic structure inside their mind.
After taking the aforesaid into account, we conclude that teachers should not teach something beyond student’s ken. Instead, acting on these theories, they have to create a natural and comfortable learning environment to help learners understand the messages they deliver. At this time, language acquisition will truly occur.
Last edited by Vita, 10/30/2004, 4:06 pm
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10/30/2004, 4:33 am
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Joanne50
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Re: The Natural Approach
Group5:Louise, Christian, Sam, Janet, Joanne
Question1:
Is it really good for L2 learners to delay their oral production?
A1:
We think it is good for L2 learners to delay their oral production. According to Krashen and Terrell’s theories of the Natural Approach, comprehension precedes production. Before they give something output, they need comprehensible input in their mind first. Thus, L2 learners’ comprehension skills need to be established first, and then they are able to speak the language. For instance, when we are kids, we heard our parents saying “Daddy,” then we imitated the sound and pronounced it. We must first listen or see the word so as to speak it out of our mouth when they developed our comprehension ability. It is impossible for kids to speak any word they have never heard before. The language must first come into our brain, and we can say it.
In addition, according to affective filter hypothesis of Krashen's Monitor Model of second language acquisition, he said that the affective filter limits what is noticed and what is acquired, depending on the learner’s state of mind. The presence of an affective filter could act as a mental block if a poor affective state existed. If L2 learners are given much pressure to speak the second language when they learned it at first time, it may influence their feeling toward learning a second language and they may not like to learn it well and continuously. Therefore, it's good for L2 learners to delay their oral production.
Question2:
Does the natural approach attend to learners' output? Can comprehensible input alone lead to learners' comprehensible output?
A2:
In Krashen and Terrell’s natural approach, it focuses on comprehensible input and the optimum affective state of the learner. Once the learners’ comprehensible input is enough, learners may have enough skills to speak and write. Otherwise, based on the principle of the natural approach that states, “Language production emerges form nonverbal responses, single words, combinations of two or three words, to phrases, sentences, and ultimately complex discourse,” the principle implies that learners’ discourse comes naturally from comprehensible input.
Moreover, if activities ensure that students can practice the language in a supportive, nonthreatening setting, learners may feel that learning a second language is not so hard and complicated, so they may feel confident to speak and write.
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10/30/2004, 2:37 pm
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